


The Time They Have

by Mersheeple



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Co-workers, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:36:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28533786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mersheeple/pseuds/Mersheeple
Summary: Strange goings on in the Time Room, strange people she shares her space with,  strange thoughts that seem to take over...
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 7
Kudos: 48





	The Time They Have

**Author's Note:**

> This did not come out the way I planned but...it came out? LOL...no clue...

“If a future you tries to warn you about this place, don’t listen.” She glanced at the poster on the door and chuckled in spite of herself. She waited, counting to twenty and, when she didn’t come out complaining about the impossible man inside, she knew this was her first visit to his office this week.

She had been coming to this office in the Time Room for the last five years or so. She started coming here straight after she finished at Hogwarts when she applied for an Internship with the Unspeakables. It had seemed mad at the time, especially when she had entered the Time Room for the first time, bumped into herself, been told that ‘that bastard is still working here’ and then watched herself storm out of the room. The poster hadn’t been there then and she had almost turned on her heel and left until _he_ had opened the door.

He was the first person she had been infatuated with that had not used a modified Beguiling Charm. He was the first man whose name had spilled from her lips as she touched herself in her childhood bedroom. He was the first person she had actually physically helped to save after the War. While the Weasleys grieved and Harry desperately tried to fix his own head, Hermione had gone to the Shrieking Shack, pulled him into her arms and thrown every potion and spell she had known at him until he had coughed and spluttered and finally _breathed_.

“Miss Granger, I shall assume you know how Time works. Come into the office and don't waste mine.” Severus Snape held the door open and she stepped past, inhaling his scent a little breathlessly. It was him, undeniably him. His scent was unique, as unique as the smell of her Amortentia.

The interview had taken precisely twenty-seven minutes. He had accepted her as an intern, under the strict instructions that he would teach her what was necessary and she would then be allowed to work in the Time Room alone. Of course, she had agreed willingly, not quite realising at the time that she would never be working alone. She was working with herself.

Sometimes, she worked with a Hermione Granger with grey strands in her hair, who complained about ‘that snarky bastard’ and stomped from one end of the room to the other. Sometimes, she worked with a Hermione Granger with bags under her eyes and a stain on her blouse, who smiled and chattered on about her baby, a baby that Hermione could not imagine having.

And then things changed. Two years after she started in the Time Room, she saw the younger version of herself. The girl walked into the room, blushed, and headed towards the office. And then she faded away, like a memory. Hermione desperately needed to know what had happened, how that had happened and so she went to his office again.

“Severus? May I come in?” After he had finished her training, he had given her his permission to use his first name. She had been delighted at the time but she wondered if it was how he could tell which version of her she was. The door creaked open and she was rewarded with the view of the man himself staring out of the window, a view that afforded her a wonderful view of his arse. She stood for a moment, smiling to herself before she entered the room and closed the door behind her.

“Severus, I just saw...well, I saw something I haven’t seen before and I wanted to check I wasn’t going mad...”

“It has begun then.” Severus muttered to himself, turning round with a small smile on his lips. She smiled back at him, noticing the way his eyes crinkled. So, this was a real smile then. Sometimes, his eyes were sad even when his lips quirked upwards.

“You saw yourself disappear, didn’t you? A younger version of yourself.” His voice was soft and she was thankful he wasn’t treating her like a crazy person.

“Yes. The older versions don’t disappear though.” Hermione’s voice trailed off and he smiled, a tiny quirk of his lips.

“The younger ones always have though. This is just the first time you’ve been the older version of you. I hate to tell you this, Miss Granger, but you are getting older. And you are heading towards the next step of your time here. I need to change your assignment. Are you ready for something different?” He quirked his damnable eyebrow and she swore under her breath.

“Severus, no, I chose this project. You can’t just change it on a bloody whim. That’s not fair. I’ve invested two years on this project.” She watched as his eyes sparkled with amusement and she huffed an angry breath.

“It may have escaped your notice but life isn’t fair.” He smirked at her and she felt like she was missing something as he raised his eyebrow. As her superior, he could easily change her project. But he had promised he wouldn’t.

“You bastard. You utter bastard. You said you would never change. I’m so close to a breakthrough and...” She whipped out of the room, cursing under her breath as she stomped past the young girl waiting outside Severus’s office. “That bastard is still working here...”

Now, she stood outside his office again, wondering if she would need to knock. She raised her hand in a fist and the door opened slowly.

“Hey, Sev, are you nearly ready? The young one is working on that stupid project you gave me, the older one is looking tired and lonely...I’m ready to start working on the middle-aged project.” Hermione laughed softly as he wrapped his arms around her and buried his nose in her hair. He inhaled deeply and she spoke softly.

“What year is it for you, love?” Hermione had long worked out that they were travelling through time at different rates. Her life was linear, even though she often worked alongside herself. Somehow, in this office, time was static and she never knew if she was walking into the current time, her past, or even her future.

“It is the Black Year love. I buried you not two days ago.” That was the worst thing about working the way she was. At some point, she knew, she would die and leave him. Although she had woken beside another version of him that morning. And would fall asleep beside still another version tonight.

He wouldn’t tell her what happened. He said he couldn’t give her any information about the future he had already lived. He had warned her, many times, not to listen to future versions of herself. What he had forgotten to tell her was not to ask questions of him either.

Like with so many people, her future was uncertain. The problem was, it was only uncertain for her, not for him. He knew when she would discover she was pregnant with their first born. He knew when she would agree to marry him. He knew when they would discover the curse in her body that would ultimately take her too young. And worst of all, he knew when she would die.

All she knew is that no matter when that time came, she would love him through it all. She just didn’t know how long they had, but it wasn’t the quantity that mattered to her. It was all about the quality of time they had left.


End file.
